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Outsider Animals
How the Creatures at the Margins of Our Lives Have the Most to Teach UsBy Marlene ZukNarrated by Marlene ZukLength7h 25m
About this audiobook
This audiobook narrated by Marlene Zuk provides an entertaining look at what raccoons, rats, and other animal intruders teach us about intelligence, adaptability, and ourselves
When we think of animals that provide the greatest insights into animal cognition and behavior, primates and honeybees come to mind, or perhaps whales or octopus. What about the raccoons that plunder our rubbish at night, or the coyotes that threaten pets and livestock, or the gulls that divebomb for snacks at the beach?
Outsider Animals challenges everything you thought you knew about the overlooked animals that live in proximity to humans, sharing the stories that each has to tell about adaptation and cohabitation on our increasingly crowded planet.
Marlene Zuk gives us a new appreciation for the animals we often shun, explaining why these unpopular creatures have something special to teach us not only about the ways we deal with other species but about our own place in nature and what it means for an animal to belong somewhere. You will discover how coyotes and snakes shed light on our coevolution with predators, what cockroaches tell us about the evolution of pregnancy, how butterflies make us reconsider the effects of roadside pollution, how cowbirds and mynas are forcing ecologists to think differently about invasive species, and much more.
Writing with an infectious blend of humor and curiosity, Zuk invites us to reflect on our relationships with these close-to-home creatures and the ways our lives encroach on theirs, and to draw lessons from their behavior in all its fascinating complexity.
Audiobook details
GenreScience and Nature
Length7 hrs 25 mins
Narrated byMarlene Zuk
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateMar 17, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Opening Credit
8Part III - Much More than Pests, Chapter 6 - Rats
2Introduction - What Are Outsider Animals?
9Chapter 7 - Cockroaches
3Part I - Clever Opportunists, Chapter 1 - Raccoons
10Part IV - Conduit to the Wild, Chapter 8 - Snakes
4Chapter 2 - Gulls
11Chapter 9 - Coyotes
5Part II - Invaders, Intruders, or Visitors?, Chapter 3 - Cowbirds (and a Little Bit of Cuckoo)
12Acknowledgments
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6Chapter 4 - Common Mynas
13End Credit
7Chapter 5 - Cabbage White Butterflies